Freelancer
by Jade-Q-and-Cupcake
Summary: Before there was Red Vs Blue, there was Project Freelancer... But before there was Project Freelancer, there was Task Force 010. Adopted by the Church family, Ben is destined to be a soldier like her sister and mother. Let's start this story where you want it to start. Just call me. 555- VICK.
1. Carolina and Tennessee vs Maine

**Mother of Invention**

 **December [REDACTED], 20[REDACTED]**

 **Operation: The Churches of Maine**

* * *

In a snowy land somewhere in an alien planet, the gigantic but crashed ship named the Mother of Invention remains dug into the ground.

As it remains there, inside are two occupants. One is a woman who's wearing cyan armor that consists of a Recon helmet, Stalker torso, Recruit shoulder plates, Mark VI forearms and Mark V Legs with the Legendary visor color. The other one is wearing a complete set of the green Hayabusa armor while also having an hourglass symbol on his left wrist.

This is Agents Carolina and Tennessee, but you may call them Carolina and Ben Church.

Carolina is training, punching amd kicking multiple holographic targets as Ben watches her work, leaning on a nearby wall.

After a minute, Carolina finishes her training by kicking the last two targets with a dropkick. As she lands on a knee, she asks, "Time?"

Suddenly, a blue hologram of a man in Mark VI armor appears out of nowhere just beside Carolina's head. This hologram is the AI Epsilon, also known as Church.

"Oh, yeah, just point zero three milliseconds too slow. Looks like we're picking the movie tonight." Church replied to his host.

"Yes!" Ben cheered as he pumps both of his fists, approaching his sister. "Gotta try harder than that, sis." He says as he puts his hand over Carolina's back.

"Oh come on!"

From out of nowhere, again, a yellow hologram of a young girl with angelic wings appear beside Ben's head. This AI is Ben's, named Omicron, nicknamed Mica.

Epsilon (Church) and Omicron (Mica) are AIs of Memory and Happiness respectively.

"You guys already picked the movie last time! Let me and Carol pick this time!" Mica complained.

"For real, you two. Besides, all you're gonna pick again is another garbage action movie." Carolina backed up her brother's AI.

Ben chuckles a little as he stretches his arms to bring out his fatigue. "Oh come on, they're hilarious. Everyone talks in one-liners, the plot's non-existent." Ben points out.

"I know right? It's like the characters are just there to beat the shit out of each other." Church backs up his host's brother.

Before Mica could retort, however, she and Church suddenly glow red a brief second, signifying an alarm. "Uh oh." Both AIs said, sensing something terrifying.

"What is it?" Both Freelancers ask their respective AIs.

"We have an uninvited guest..." Mica says as the siblings look up at the observation deck and see someone watching them.

That EVA helmet is familiar to both Freelancers, especially when one is friends with him and the other being the one who gave him his first AI.

The Meta.

"Maine?" Carolina asks Ben as she aims her pistol at the window in front of the Meta.

"But didn't Tucker say they killed him?" Ben asks back as he slaps the Omnitrix. Instead of transforming, however, he simply gained a green aura for bit before aiming his hands at Maine...

...while his palm produces diamond shards. On the process, he also gained the Omnitrix symbol on his chest even while remaining human.

He's unlocked this function of the Omnitrix a long time ago. The one Ultimate Ben 10000 used.

They can't see clearly, but it looks like the Meta's AI fragments appear and tell Meta to kill Carolina and Ben and take their AIs. The Meta takes out his Brute Shot.

"Okay... If we win, you girls can the movie." Ben suggested.

"Wait, seriously–" Church tried to insist.

"They. Can pick. The movie." Ben insisted more.

Church groaned and simply replies, "Fine. Freaking family ties..." He then disappears into Carolina's head. Mica does the same thing as the Meta breaks through the window.

Meta thrusts down the Brute Shot but Ben and Carolina roll away and started shooting at the Meta, Carolina with her gun and Ben with his Diamondhead diamond shards, but the Meta blocks the projectiles with the Brute Shot. Even the diamond shards are breaking upon contact with the durable grenade launcher.

As he blocks the attacks, the Meta runs at the two siblings, who are both still firing at their enemy despite the situation. "Not working!" Their AIs both yelled inside their heads.

"We can see that!" The Freelancers both yelled back but kept firing anyway as the Meta is nearing them.

Once near, the Meta uses the Brute Shot to attack, but Carolina blocks the attacks although Meta kicks her away. Ben creates two batons made of diamond and began fighting the Meta with eskrima. Unfortunately, none of his attacks did any damage as Meta blocked his last attack and uppercut him, sending him flying off and landing on his back on the ground.

Meta then began to attack Carolina again, aiming for her head, but she blocks it and shoots at Meta's head. Meta counters and headbutts Carolina, throwing her pistol away. Meta then tries to hit Carolina but she dodges it and, unexpected by the Meta, Carolina yells at her brother, "Ben! Maneuver B!"

At the command, Ben zooms behind Carolina, grabs both her hands, and spun in place. Ben then threw his sister at the Meta like a bullet and Carolina ends up kicking the Meta in the face, making him stagger and stumble.

Taking this chance, Carolina pulls out her Humbler Stun Device and Ben switches to using Shocksquatch's powers. Both Ben and Carolina charge at the Meta. Meta tries to hit Carolina but she blocks it and stuns Meta multiple times, knocking his Brute Shot away with an air kick. Meta then sees his fallen Brute Shot. But instead of picking it up, he growls and punches his fists together and walks towards his enemies. But Ben got to him first and began doing karate and taekwondo moves on Meta while empowering his punches, kicks and chops with electricity.

When Ben kicked Meta, which caused him to skid backwards, it was Carolina's turn to fight. The Meta tries to punch her many times but Carolina dodges them as she stuns Meta and slide kicks him down, sweeping off his legs to make him fall.

Church and Mica both appear beside their host's heads and complain at Ben, "Go Way Big on this guy!"

"And risk stepping on sis? No." Ben pointed out.

The Meta shakes his head to shrug off the pain when he spots his Brute Shot beside him. Punching the ground in anger, he stands back up to go pick up his weapon.

"Ben. Maneuver X." Carolina says to her brother, who nods back as he slaps the Omnitrix and began using XLR8's powers. Carolina activates her Speed Boost in tandem and both run towards Meta. As Meta picks up the Brute Shot, both heroes punch Meta, causing him to stagger a little. As the two start to run up the walls, the Meta tries to shoot at them but he misses all the shots as Carolina and Ben dash towards the Meta and punches him to a wall. Carolina rolls and pulls her Battle Rifle while Ben takes out his Assault Rifle, both shooting at the Meta. Unfortunately, he activates his Domed Energy Shield and Overshield, the bullets simply bouncing off his protective barrier. After a while, the Meta activates his Active Camtflage and the Domed Energy Shield and Overshield drops.

With their enemy invisible, Carolina and Ben go back to back, aiming their guns at where the Meta could be. "Church, Mica. Scan." Ben commands both AIs as he and his sister remain warry.

"Scanning..." Both AIs replied... and immediately responded with, "Your right! (to Carolina)/ Your left! (to Ben)"

Both Freelancers aimed at the direction they were told, but Meta suddenly appears in front of them, grabs both of their rifles and, because they're both still holding onto their weapons, tossed the two away, forcing them to let go of their guns.

The Meta drops both of their guns and steps on them, destroying both the Battle and Assault Rifles.

With their weapons out of commission, Carolina and Ben, who slaps the Omnitrix and switches to Kickin Hawk's skills, prepare to battle the Meta with hand to hand combat.

The two engage their enemy up close, but even with superior skills, their attacks do nothing to Meta's durability. Their last punches were caught by Meta's hands and he makes them hit themselves. When the two stagger back, the Meta collides their heads into each other, making them more dizzy than they already were. That's when Meta grabs Ben's leg and uses him as a projectile to throw at Carolina.

This caused both agents to get knocked into each other and sent flying into a wall. The two recover and look at each other for one final plan.

"Maneuver C?" Ben asks his sister.

"Maneuver C." Carolina nods at her brother.

Instead of just using his aliens' powers, this time, Ben slaps the Omnitrix and transforms into Upgrade, who began fusing with Carolina's armor. The result was Carolina's armor turning black and green, her helmet's visor gaining a neon green glow and an Omnitrix symbol manifesting itself on her chest.

Maneuver C, also known as the Carolina - Tennessee United.

Upgraded Carolina then powers up and began using all her armor enhancements all at once. With Upgrade, he doesn't have to worry about short circuiting Church, risking his life.

After charging up, Upgraded Carolina dashes towards Meta with enhanced speed. However, Meta uses Temporal Distortion to stop Upgraded Carolina in midair. Using this to his advantage, Meta pulls out his Brute Shot and knocks Upgraded Carolina into a wall. Carolina and Upgrade were screaming in pain as they fly towards the concrete and steel wall.

Carolina is barely damaged. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Upgrade as he oozes off Carolina's armor and returns to his human form. Ben's chest is horribly damaged. He purposely took most of the damaged to keep Carolina safe.

"Ben!" Carolina and Mica, who just reappeared, yelled at Ben, who nows lies unconscious on the ground beside Carolina.

As the Meta reloads his Brute Shot, Carolina, angered by Ben almost dying, spots her pistol on the ground and grabs it, doing an action roll before firing at the Meta, managing to land a couple hits on the brute.

The Meta noticed that he got shot, visible through the holes on his armor and body, and he ends up on knee in pain.

"You got him!" Both Church and Mica cheered. Unfortunately, Meta stands back up, growls and slowly walking towards Carolina.

"OK seriously, what the fuck." Church complained while Mica simply glows red in annoyance.

"Why won't you die?!" Mica complained as well, almost sounding like a cyborg ninja complaining at an unkillable senator.

Carolina reloads her pistol as she tries to shoot at Meta again, but Meta throws his Brute Shot as it slashes Carolina and sticks into the wall. Meta punches her multiple times then grabs Carolina by her neck and is about to punch her in order to finish the fight.

"Hey wait wait wait wait! Hold up!" Church panickingly says as he appears in front of the Meta's face.

"It's him. _It's him._ **It's him.** " The eight different AIs in Meta's head said to him, wanting Meta to take their "brother".

"Uhhh hey so I know you're about to pummel her ginger face in and all, but you also talk in grunts so I'm just gonna say this one line for you okay? Just this one time." Church joked at their enemy, confusing Meta.

Before he knew it, something hot grabbed Meta's head, causing him to get surprised and look behind him...

...and the one holding his head is an injured but very angry Heatblast.

"Hoh! Son of a bitch!" Church mockingly said for the Meta as Heatblast blows up the Meta's head completely.

With the enemy dead, or dead again I should say, Heatblast turns back to Ben as he falls into Carolina's arms, who hugs her brother reassuringly.

"Sis?" Ben asks.

"Yeah?" Carolina replies, still hugging her tired and injured brother.

"No action movies." Ben replied.

Carolina chuckles in response and instead of just a reassuring hug, this time, she hugs him with a sisterly loving hug. Ben hugs back finally as he found his strength to do so. "Let's just watch your old Sumo Slammer anime. How about that?" Carolina suggests.

"I love you, you know that...?" Ben replies.

"Love you too, little brother... You too..." Carolina ends.

* * *

 _ **You're probably wondering how did it all get here? Well, where do you want to start? The beginning of Project Freelancer? The middle of the Blood Gulch Crew? Or the end of the Chorus civil war?**_

 _ **You tell me. I'm busy watching Sumo Slammers.**_

* * *

 **Freelancer**

 **A Ben 10 - Red vs Blue Crossover**


	2. Days in the Future with Some Pasts

**So uhhh... It's me Q. Jade had this saved in her files and she said I should post it since she didn't want this story lost forever.**

* * *

Carolina reloads her pistol as she tries to shoot at Meta again, but Meta throws his Brute Shot as it slashes Carolina and sticks into the wall. Meta punches her multiple times then grabs Carolina by her neck and is about to punch her in order to finish the fight.

"Hey wait wait wait wait! Hold up!" Church panickingly says as he appears in front of the Meta's face.

"It's him. _It's him._ **It's him.** " The eight different AIs in Meta's head said to him, wanting Meta to take their "brother".

"Uhhh hey so I know you're about to pummel her ginger face in and all, but you also talk in grunts so I'm just gonna say this one line for you okay? Just this one time." Church joked at their enemy, confusing Meta.

Before he knew it, something hot grabbed Meta's head, causing him to get surprised and look behind him...

...and the one holding his head is an injured but very angry Heatblast.

"Hoh! Son of a bitch!" Church mockingly said for the Meta as Heatblast blows up the Meta's head completely.

With the enemy dead, or dead again I should say, Heatblast turns back to Ben as he falls into Carolina's arms, who hugs her brother reassuringly.

"Sis?" Ben asks.

"Yeah?" Carolina replies, still hugging her tired and injured brother.

"No action movies." Ben replied.

Carolina chuckles in response and instead of just a reassuring hug, this time, she hugs him with a sisterly loving hug. Ben hugs back finally as he found his strength to do so. "Let's just watch your old Sumo Slammer anime. How about that?" Carolina suggests.

"I love you, you know that...?" Ben replies.

"Love you too, little brother... You too..." Carolina ends.

* * *

 _Minutes later..._

As Carolina has her healing unit patch up her brother, Ben pops his broken arm back into it's socket, making a painful crunching sound as the two ex-Freelancer's AIs pop up once more.

"Why didn't you just do that earlier? Or heck, turn into Humungousaur or fucking Way Big and stepped on him! This could have been all avoided!" Church yelled at Ben as the brother of the AI's host stands up and stretches his legs.

"Hey, if I did that, I might accidentally step on both of you." Ben pointed out as his angelic AI jumps onto his helmet and sits on atop it.

"Chill out, duuuude~" Mica said as she tries to calm down her AI brother. "Look on the bright side."

The two males await what Mica will say next as Carolina walks towards the Meta's lifeless suit. "Well?" Church asks Mica. "When people say that, Mica, theh usually follow up the actual bright side of the situation..." He adds.

The angelic AI just shushes her brother and replies, "Shut up. I'm trying to think..."

"Instead of wasting your ones and zeroes on that, think about this."

Ben, Church and Mica turn to see Carolina doing her investigation on the Meta's suit. As the three approach her, Carolina picks up something from where Maine's head used to be and it seems to be a chip of some sort. Diamond in shape, alien in origin. "Looks like someone's been possessing Maine's body." Carolina points out as she stands from her position and shows the chip to her AI companions and her brother.

The latter immediately recognizes it. "Those are the nanochips from my world." Ben immediately responded.

"Oh great. And I thought only Carolina has her past catching up to her." Church sarcastically comments.

His AI sister proceeds to scan the chip, so Church does the same. "Yeah. No known records of this kind of tech in the known universe. Definitely not from around here." Mica explained what she had found.

"No records of being categorized as weapons..." Church adds to the information at hand. "However, there are reports about sightings of these things infecting populated planets. Some were too scared to take samples, thinking they might get infected too. So yeah. Nobody really got to examine these except us."

"War on Chorus is over, we get to have vacation, but then trouble finds us again. What are the odds!" Carolina lampshades their situation as she hands the chip to Ben.

"Well, we have a universe wide infection going on, and I have this really bad feeling it's someone from my past, too." Ben replies. "Looks like we got ourselves a mystery to solve."

Church could only as Mica pumps her fists in excitement for another adventure. "I'll prep the Pelican's systems..." Church muttered under his digital breath and disappears while his host and her brother head for the aforementioned ship.

"Wait! I gotta give the wife a call." Ben suddenly remembered as they keep walking.

"Do you really have to?" Carolina complained, but she did not mean it. She was being sly and sarcastic.

However, her brother mistook it for a serious question and replies with, "Of course I do. You know she gets cranky if I don't come home on time."

"Told ya we should've lived with the Reds and Blues on the moon." Mica retorts to her host as she prepares the call for him.

"She has a duty to her people. Besides, living in Chorus is fine with me."

"Only because she drives you crazy."

"Mica!"

"Technically, she's the crazy one. I guess my baby brother likes to stick it in crazy."

"Okay, Carolina. First of all, my darling is NOT crazy."

"Keep telling yourself that, Ben."

"Quiet, Mica. And second, come on! She's hot! And her personality is just... oozing with charisma! Why do you think she's a respected member of the Chorus army?"

"'Respected' is putting it lightly. More like 'feared'."

"Ugh... you girls drive me crazy..."

"Oh? You have a thing for incest now, Ben? I can get behind that~"

"You're a terrible teaser, sis... and a terrible liar."

"Oooooh! Snap!"

"Oh, really? Come here!"

"Not there! Not there!"

* * *

 _Years ago..._

An 18 year old girl, wearing a light blue jacket on top of a white shirt, with red hair and a well toned body, walks down the sidewalk of New Alexandria as she has her hands in her pocket. She's on her way to Club Errera to have a good time.

However, as she passes by an alleyway, she suddenly heard the sound of zapping within said alley and she turns around. She returns to the alleyway she had just passed. When all she sees are a bunch of trash cans, she's already suspecting whatever made the noise might be still around, hidden in the dark.

Remembering what her mother taught her, she reaches inside her blue jacket, takes out her Swiss army knife and brings out it's small knife. Suddenly, even she was surprised when inside the pile of garbage bags at the end of the alley suddenly has something underneath them glow with a bright, emerald light.

She readies her knife in case something monstrous jumps out... but it was worse...

A boy comes out instead.

Having brown hair with a green jacket atop his black shirt, the boy pushes away all the garbage around him as he coughs and comes out of the pile he found himself into.

The girl raises a brow at the boy before putting up a stern face and aim her knife at him, causing the boy to back up into the wall behind him as he yells, "Whoa whoa whoa!"

"Explain yourself, punk!" The redhead asks, threatening the brunette with her self defense tool.

"What, you've never seen a human before? Look in a mirror, you might find a miracle!" the boy remarked sarcastically, raising his hands to play along with the girl with the knife.

However, his joke only provoked her as she thrusts her knife closer to the boy's neck, causing him to gulp while she asks, and quite angrily, "I'm sorry! Am I not supposed to suspect a guy to suddenly appear right underneath a pile of literal trash from a bright flash of light?!"

The boy sighs as he drops his hands and crosses them over his chest, before speaking. "You sound like you don't know me. That either means you're just uncultured and unaware of the savior of your universe... OR... I'm in an alternate dimension."

His response only made the girl raise an eyebrow in confusion.

"Alright. Quick questions so we'll get out of this mess. What alien races do you know?" He suddenly asks her.

"Ummm... Okay. Jiralhanae, Mgalekgolo, Sangheili..."

"Never heard of those. Ever heard of a Pyronite?"

"The heck is that?"

"Vulpimancer?"

"Is that some D'n'D crap?"

"Petrosapien?"

"Uhhh..."

"Kinecelaran?"

"No.."

The boy was going to continue as he says, "Then how about–"

"Okay!" The girl interrupts him, however, and sighs. "You've made your point. Who are you?"

"Name's Ben, and I'm kinda lost." The boy, Ben, introduced himself as he looks around, scratching his head.

"Well, my friends usually call me by nickname, Carolina. I guess you can call me that." Carolina, the girl, replied, finally putting away her Swiss army knife after she retracts it's blade. "I can show you around. I'm headed to Club Errera right now."

"Sounds neat." Ben replies before the two of them walk away from the alley and head to Carolina's original endeavor.

* * *

 _An hour later..._

Carolina and Ben laugh heartily as the former opens the door to her house. "Okay, that _was_ kinda cool." Carolina says after entering the doorway while waiting for Ben to enter the house as well.

"I told you so. But you gotta keep it a secret, okay?" Ben insisted, entering Carolina's house.

"Not much of a secret when the whole club saw you beat up those assholes trying to get in my pants." Carolina rebutted as she closes the door behind them before they laugh with each other once more, already establishing their friendship. "Come on. I think there's some hot chocolate we can make."

"Would it still be hot if it's not made yet?" Ben joked as he and Carolina take a few steps forward...

... before they finally see two adults in front of them that had been watching them the moment they stepped foot in this home.

One is a tall, blonde woman with blue eyes and fair skin while the other is a man of same height with black hair, green eyes and slightly darker but not roo dark skin than his fellow adult.

"Young lady, would you like to tell us who is this boy you brought home?" The man asked Carolina as he crossed his arms.

"Before you say it–" Carolina was going to start talking but then the blonde woman interrupts her.

"Is he your boyfriend?" She suddenly says out of nowhere, making Carolina upset in the process while Ben visibly cringes.

Carolina grunts in annoyance before saying, "I was going to say he's not, mom! He's Ben. He's a friend I just met. He helped me beat up some punks that wanted to make a move on me."

"Oh, we heard, young lady." The man beside Carolina's mom, apparently, so the most logical conclusion is that this old man is her father. "We would like to know more about him, considering you let him in your own home having just met him, as you said."

"I owe him one. Cut him some slack." Carolina defended Ben.

"Do I get a say in this?" Ben asks the redhead.

However, she just shushes him before replying, "You're not involved in this."

"I'm feeling pretty involved..." Ben retorted.

 _The grenade is made by Eon. I'm sure you remember him. It was designed to incapacitate a target by transporting the target to a small black hole. Once the black hole has completely sucked in the target, it will cause the target to be transferred to a different dimension. However... there's a catch. In order for the target to never be found, the grenade will create multiple clones of the original, all with the same memories, appearance and so on. The clones will then be sent to separate dimensions, thus, those who would look for the target, like friends and family for example, will have a hard time determining where the real target is. Eon had Fisttrick do this to you in an attempt to prevent the real Ben from stopping him._

 _Ben?_

 _Ben._

 _BEN!_

* * *

"Who? What? Wha–" Ben was startled as he moves the binoculars away from his visor while Carolina has a hand on his shoulder.

 ** _Unknown Planet_**

 ** _13:46 - Earth Time_**

 ** _Climate: Stormy as fuck (According to Epsilon)_**

"I asked if you're okay. You suddenly stopped talking when I mentioned South." Carolina spoke as Church appears beside her head.

Ben sighs, putting the binoculars back on to scout the area they're watching as the rain pours from the sky while the wind blows like small hurricanes. "Just... thinking of the times she was actually good... Before she went full bitch on us." He simply replied, with his own AI, Mica, revealing herself, sitting atop her owner's head.

"Right. I remember you two were always the last two out of the shower just as everyone else got out first. And you were always scolded by Da–... By the Director for..." Carolina paused for a second to clear her throat like she's going to quote someone. "...'making too much noise in the showers.'" She continued.

"Hey, we can't help it. We're adults who like– I mean, liked, each other and were left alone without any clothes on." Ben responds, taking off the binoculars once before handing it to his sister, who starts using it as well. "It was natural. Plus, she gives the meanest ride I've ever felt."

"Jesus, you two are siblings! Do you two just casually talk about sex like that?!" Church points out, clearly disgusted at the conversation.

"We also started out as friends, you know. We can talk about sex just as much as we talk about what we had for lunch." Carolina responded while keeping a close eye on their target through their binoculars. "Speaking of lunch, I also remember when you tried asking out Ohio during lunch. And you came back to me, defeated."

"Hey, I clearly did not know Vera wasn't into guys, but it was cool. She and I hung out with Idaho and Iowa after that. Made me appreciate those never included in the leaderboard." Ben replied, loading a magazine into his Assault Rifle. "Never got to see them again after Project Freelancer fell. Shame."

"Oh please. You too were never in the leaderboard because you had a different kind of scoreboard on your own." Carolina says to her brother as she puts away the binoculars and takes out her Battle Rifle, loading it as well before they move from their spot under the trees.

The duo slide down the hill by using the slippery texture the rain had made of the hillside, rendering the soil easier to slip on. Once their feet are on the ground once more, they run to nearby gigantic rocks and hide behind as Ben tosses to his sister the binoculars once more. Carolina catches it and uses it to once more scope out their target. "For the record, pun unintended, I never asked to be scored that way. I honestly wished we weren't scored at all." Ben makes his argument while Mica brings up a holographic screen of their current equipment.

The target they have been looking at the whole time is an enormous UNSC facility surrounded by a deep lake, gigantic Mantis drones acting as guard dogs, some heavily armed patrol that comes with machine gun mounted Warthogs, two Hornet's hovering above the building and finally, a tank in the courtyard of the place with heavily armed soldiers for support. The building itself has the UNSC logo on it.

"Holy mother of whatever god that made Caboose! They got a whole fucking army in there." Church points out, marking every possible hostile in the area and transferring the data to the HUDs of both Freelancer siblings.

Mica shares the data she has one their equipment to her fellow AI before adding to the conversation with, " And we don't have enough bullets and grenades for everyone. Two suggestions: stealth or..."

"Or we try to have Ben turn into Way Big and crush them while someone calls for reinforcements and gives away our location to Hargrove and he nukes the whole planet." Carolina continued Mica's response while also pointing out the flaws of the second option.

"Stealth then." Ben agrees with his sister before Church interrupts.

"Why not just go Ghostfreak then? Or Big Chill?" The Memory AI points out.

"This is Hargrove we're talking about. Rumors around Chorus have said he's been preparing for me and my Omnitrix, so he started making detectors for when I use them. He doesn't want to take any chances." Ben explains.

Epsilon then just shrugs and says, "Fair enough. Alright. I've marked all hostiles in the area."

"Good. The storm will keep us quiet. Use your camo properly. I'll take point. Tennessee, you follow." Carolina orders her brother as they crouch, place their respective rifles on their backs and change their armors' color from aqua and green respectively into camouflage patterns similar to their surroundings: a combination of green, dark green and even darker green.

They start by stepping into the lake, keeping to head level so that anything below their chin is hidden by the murky water they are swimming on. Two UNSC soldiers suddenly walk near the lake and the two camouflaged Freelancers stop.

"So... you hear about the project?" One of the soldiers suddenly spoke as he lazily kicks a stone into the water, creating a small ripple effect that thankfully did not hit the heads of the siblings, which would have given away their position.

"I try to stay away from any rumors, man. I don't wanna be spoiled about the whole thing like those stupid trailers for that Spider Man movie that gave away the whole movie." The other soldier responded before they conveniently move away from their current and walk off while still talking.

"Well then I'll just say this man: It's apparently gonna be big and involves those alien chips inside this place." The previous soldier replied.

His partner, however, merely scoffed as their voices started to lower and fade due to them leaving their spot. "I dunno, man. The last time they used those things, it made some terrible B-Horror movie monster shit. And don't get me started on..." The other soldier says as he starts trailing now that he's far way from our Freelancer duo.

"Shit, that was close." Ben points out as he and Carolina start moving through the water again.

"No kidding. Whatever their sick project is, we need to see for ourselves and hopefully be in time to stop it." Carolina replies before she brings her fist up to signal Tennessee to stop, who follows her order as he floats behind his sister. The two of them had just halted right beside footbridge that connects the base to the other side of the lake surrounding it. A patrol passes by, walking on the bridge. About six of them, four armed with DMRs, one has a sniper rifle and the other has a rocket launcher. "Hold position..." Carolina whispered through her comms so only Ben could hear her.

As the patrol passes, crossing the bridge and reaching wet soil once more, Carolina opens her fists as a signal to move again as she commands, "Move!"

The duo swim once more, still head level as the go underneath the bridge and cross under it. Once they have swam their way to the nearest they can possibly be to the building, they look around first to see if anyone is looking. When there's no one, Tennessee and Carolina rise from the murky waters and onto wet land again, running to the nearest, unoccupied Warthog and taking cover behind it's side.

Taking their guns from their backs, Carolina peeks from their hiding spot and looks around. She gives Ben a thumbs up and he takes it as a go. He moves up, Assault Rifle in hand, as he walks around the vehicle and reaches the front door of the facility, unguarded. Carolina follows and, as her brother installs Mica's AI chip into the passcode keyboard to hack it, she goes the opposite side of her brother so they can breach the door on two parallel spots once they get it open.

When the keyboard gets hacked and shows the word "OPEN", Tennessee takes Mica back and installs her in his helmet before he nods to Carolina, who nods back, and they open the parallel doors...

...to find a whole army of DMR armed UNCS soldiers are right at the lobby, surprising Ben and Carolina so hard, Church and Mica appear beside the heads of their owners.

"...Fuck." Church could only say before the soldiers all aim their guns at the intruders while the siblings return their armor color back to green and turquoise respectively.

"Plan B?" Ben asks his sister.

"Maneuver X." Carolina seemingly, and quite dryly, agrees while also immediately saying their team exclusive technique.

Ben slaps his Omnitrix and calls upon XLR8's powers before he and sister, with Speed Boost, charge straight through the enemy, some of which make the Wilhelm scream.

* * *

 **To be continued...**


	3. Fighting with Fire

**Surprise! It's me, Jade. Slowly working my back up to writing so here I am, writing for Freelancer. That and, recently, Q's... having some problems I can't say for personal reasons.**

 **For now, here you guys go.**

* * *

"Fucking goddamn piece of shit!"

"Cursing a lot does not substitute for good humor, Church."

"Be quiet, you two. We already got past the first line of security."

"Give them some slack, sis."

Finally, both agents kick down a door leading to the next room while their previous room had so many dead UNSC mercenaries in it, it's almost enough to fill a whole garbage truck. As they enter the room, Ben pops one of his arms back as Carolina brushes off some dust off her shoulder. "Geez, how did your arm got broken anyway?" Mica asks her Freelancer host, putting up a medical detector as she has Ben's newly recovered arm scanned.

"Carolina broke it." Church answered for Ben instead.

Carolina immediately looked at her AI to berate him and say, "I did not break–"

"Uhhh, if I recall, We tore through those soldiers like butter and during the fight, I mentioned that this reminded me of the time I went too fast as XLR8 and then you and I accidentally kissed but then you suddenly broke my arm and then I reminded you that we weren't technically siblings back then." Ben responded just as Mica had finished the scan and noted that Ben's arm is still 97% functional and effective.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, you two... get a room already." Church sarcastically complained as he can barely look at the two agents who are supposed to be siblings.

"It was a long time ago and we were both teenagers. Besides, neither of us enjoyed that kiss." Carolina replies, pulling her Battle Rifle from her back and walking ahead into a hallway leading to somewhere else in the facility, ahead of her brother, who follows her, only two steps behind.

"Oh, yeah. Definitely." Ben agreed with his big sister as he, too, pulls out his Assault Rifle, taking out it's near empty magazine before loading a new one in. "I've kissed like, what, three girls prior to when I met you? And after experiencing your lips, you weren't that good." He added until Carolina stopped in front of him.

"Do you want another broken arm?" Carolina threatened her little brother, turning around to face him.

"Sis, do you really want... your little brother, who you've been with for nearly 16 years, with some of those years spent with our parents, to admit that he enjoyed kissing you, his sister? Not counting the fact that he clearly didn't enjoy it just as much as you did." Ben pointed out.

The hallway was quiet for a few seconds as the two Church siblings stare at each other like they can see each other's eyes through their visors while their respective AI also look at them in suspense.

"... You're getting braver everyday." Carolina genuinely commended her brother as she smiles underneath her helmet.

Ben chuckles back and replies, "Well, like I've said. I've been with you from the start and I've recently started living with another one of the scariest women in the galaxy. I think I can handle one of you breaking my arm more than your... other punishments."

"Hate to break the happy moment, but motion sensors say you guys got incoming." Epsilon tells the siblings and they both face back at the door at the end of this hallway, aiming their guns at it just as it opens.

Then, they open fire.

* * *

 _15 years ago..._

"Carolina?"

Carolina turned around, wearing a black shirt with long, white sleeves, to see Ben, wearing a black jacket over him as he approaches his sister, who's standing next to a lake. "It'd be stupid if I asked if you're okay since... clearly, none of us are... So, uhhh.." Ben tried to make a conversation with Carolina as he finally got near her and stands beside her, both of them them watching the still water.

"She... she never liked saying goodbye..." Carolina didn't let her brother finish as she crouched down to grab a pebble on the ground before standing up, tossing the pebble up and then catching it back. "Even when she had to go back to the battlefield or just to go pick something in the office, she never says goodbye, because she believed if you don't say 'goodbye,' then you aren't really gone. So when we held her only hand that was left as she lied there on that hospital bed... and she finally uttered those words she never liked... Was she saying she won't be with us anymore?" Carolina ended her sentiment before throwing the pebble in her hand far away, landing in the middle of the lake and sank deep down, creating ripples along the way.

Ben sighs, also crouching down to take a pebble and stands up once again, as he tells his adoptive sister, "Carolina, I... I don't know. You've told me already that she didn't like goodbyes... And I'm just as shocked as you are when... Sis, I don't know what mom really meant that night. But, whether or not she's here for us, I know one thing. And that is that she loves us. All three of us. She'd want us to keep going so that one day... none of us don't have to say goodbye like she did that night." Finishing his short little speech, Ben then tosses the pebble he had into the water, but instead of immediately sinking, it bounced a couple of times before finally losing momentum after a fifth bounce and sinking down to the depths of the lake.

The afternoon Sun ahead began to descend in the horizon as the two Churches remain standing together, staring into the distance as the lake before them stops making ripples and began to stay still once more.

And that... is when Carolina hugged her little brother. Ben was shocked at first but eventually, he gave in and hugged back his mourning sister. "At least you're here... Dad was so distraught he... he didn't even come..." Carolina whispered into Ben's ear as she tightens her grip around him.

Ben simply rubs Carolina's back while still hugging her to reassure her. "It's fine. He couldn't accept that mom's gone... None of us do but... That's what grief does to people..." The boy spoke to the girl as they stay in each other's arms, trying to calm down alongside his sister.

When Ben lets go, she sees Carolina, while not making any noise, has visible tears coming from her eyes, running down her cheeks. The brunette wipes away the tears of his redheaded sister as she turns her eyes away from the ground and at her brother.

"Come on. They're waiting for us." Ben spoke as he goes back to the shade where the friends and other members of the Church family attend to the funeral of none other than Ben and Carolina's mother, Allison Church.

Carolina could only stare at her little brother before she returns her gaze at the lake, the Sun ahead, gone, replaced by the small, bright Moon.

* * *

 _Do you want to live with us?_

 _You... would let me?_

 _You've been there for our daughter and saved her multiple times. And we heard about your problem._

 _You can be part of our family._

 _...I... I would love that._

 _Alright! You can be like... my little brother!_

 _I'm not that young!_

 _You're still a year younger than me._

 _Oh shut up..._

* * *

"Excuse me?" Carolina asks Ben as he types on a console while she watches out for any enemy that might come.

"I said shut up. I told you that we can't talk about... her." Ben replied while on the screen, Mica is on as she's sorting through multiple files by seemingly physically holding on to the folders.

Carolina merely chuckled at her little brother. "Well, if you don't want to use her real name, can we use... Four Seven Niner?" Carolina says as Church appears above her head.

"Dude, Tucker is gonna be so jealous if he hears how many times you've banged chicks." Church took his turn to mock Agent Tennessee.

"I really don't want to talk about it..." Ben replied as Mica throws away another folder and grabs another one.

"I... remember when 479er kept talking smack about you nonstop during our solo missions... yet she kept inserting parts about how big your... uh... you know, is." Carolina teased her little brother, elbowing him slightly.

Ben sighs in frustration as he spots Mica at the corner of his eye hold up a folder and looking through the screen, signaling she found what they needed. The annoyed agent takes out the AI chip of his companion from the console and pops it back in his helmet before telling his sister, "We didn't like each other and she was probably talking about the time we... did it. That was before me and South became a thing."

The two then run off out of the control room they had entered, passing by the dead bodies of the soldiers they killed to get here and exiting the very room to enter yet another hallway, running through it.

"So, what? You two had hate sex or something?" Church mockingly asked Ben.

"Hate... is the right word. I think she and I just argued so hard, she suddenly took off her helmet, punched off mine, then we started making out then found ourselves in her room. It wasn't even like 'sex-sex'. We were trying to one up each other. She would crush my pelvis, I would break her ass. We were both trying to see who can last the longest." Ben explained to her sister's AI as his own appears on his shoulder.

"Competitive...hate sex. That's not something you hear every day." Church pointed out as the team reached the door and opened it, only to be greeted by gunfire and prompting both agents to hide on separate walls on each side of the open door.

Carolina cocks her weapon while Ben puts his rifle on his back to take out a pistol, seeing it to be more manageable in a tight spot like this. "How do we get past this?" The older Church sibling asked, turning the corner to fire some shots into the other room, managing to hit two out of the twenty soldiers blocking their way.

With 18 enemies left, Ben also peeks from his corner and starts firing as well, but he only hit one of them. "Dunno. Church. Mica. Can you see what's outside?" Ben asked both AIs as he continued firing bullets alongside Carolina, who backs out and reloads her rifle.

"Thermals say more guards approaching our position." Mica warned her host and host's sister while showing a holographic screen of the thermal scan of the outside of the facility.

"To add to the bad news, I hacked into the security footage. They also have tanks, a ton of the Mantis drones and a couple of Hornets coming with them." Church took his turn to speak as well as showing them the security footage.

The Church siblings could only stare at each other, silently asking each other for suggestions... before Carolina groans and responds quite begrudgingly, "Fine. Emergency plan Z..."

"Finally!" Church cheered as Ben holsters his pistol and activates his Omnitrix.

* * *

Outside the facility, the enemy soldiers all converge on the building, all of them in their vehicles...

...and the ground shook beneath as the building they're meant to protect in front of them began crumbling before a large pillar of flame erupts from inside, extending to the outside. And from that same rising flame, Heatblast and Carolina, inside her domed energy shield, come out and land in the middle of the battlefield as the shocked expressions of the soldiers disappear and proceed to surround the siblings.

Standing back to back, Heatblast and his sister look at all the soldiers surrounding them, no fear found in their eyes, only determination... and two pissed off ex Freelancers. As Heatblast creates fireballs in his hands while Carolina drew both her pistol and battle rifle in each hand, they've already prepared themselves in taking down these cockbites.

The moment the Pyronite saw even just one soldier move his finger inches away to the trigger of his assault rifle, Heatblast goes for a blast of fire at the ground and creates a smokescreen for the siblings, blocking the enemy's view.

Unable to see to what could be in the wall of smoke, the same soldier couldn't react fast enough as Carolina hits him square in the face with a flying dropkick. As if in slow motion to the unprepared soldiers' eyes, Heatblast seemingly rockets forward fast enough to catch Carolina's hand before she could even fall to the ground and throws her back behind him before Heatblast himself blows up a tank just in front of him simply by firing a large blast of flame at it in an instant.

Recovering on the ground by sliding on it after her brother had thrown her, Carolina takes out her guns once more, dual wielding the rifle and pistol as she shot down numerous soldiers in her field of view. After he had roundhouse kicked an unlucky rocket launcher wielding soldier, who unconsciously let go of his weapon in mid air, Heatblast grabs the very same rocket launcher and slams his free palm on the ground to channel his flame into the very earth, allowing him to use his limited terrakinesis to propel three large lumps of rock for Carolina, who proceeds to jump one and uses her battle rifle to snipe some more soldiers who attempt to shoot at her, using her new high ground as an advantage.

"C!" Heatblast yelled and threw the rocket launcher he had in his hand like a throwing knife, to which Carolina managed to catch as she jumps on a higher floating rock platform, using the new weapon she has to blow up a tank and a Hornet simultaneously. Heatblast finally joined her on the new platform as he covers his sister, while she reloads her rocket launcher, by firing two separate beams from each hand to fry two lines of different positioned enemies. Upon hearing a Hornet coming at them from behind, Heatblast immediately turned and fired a powerful stream of flame that immediately melted the whole aircraft, even the pilot inside. Once Carolina finished reloading, she fired at more soldiers firing at them, killing them with the explosion while Heatblast uses terrakinesis to telekinetically throw the remaining rock platforms at two different tanks, blowing them into bits of metal.

When a lucky shot by a lucky enemy managed to explode the very floating stage they're on with a missile, Heatblast and Carolina fell back on the ground but instead of landing on their backs, they land on their feet like lucky cats. Back to back once more, another missile came at them from Carolina's position, but she was somehow fast enough to react that she ducked, long enough for Heatblast to turn, grab the incoming projectile, and use enough strength to redirect it with his bare hand and throw it back at the Hornet that fired it in the first place, blowing it up.

Another soldier thought he could take advantage of Heatblast being distracted as he drew his Spartan Laser. Holding the trigger down while the beam charges up as he took aim at his enemies, the smug soldier thought he could just end the siblings here...

...but a bullet went through his head as blood splattered through the hole of his helmet. He failed to notice that, ironically, Carolina noticed him as she is aiming at his dead body, the barrel of her pistol smoking.

As more soldiers and tanks come in from all sides, Carolina simply brings out her domed energy shield to defend herself as Heatblast charges immense heat from his feet and then, with the force of a rocket, lifts off and jets into the sky, leaving a trail of fiery yellow smoke that was enough to make all the enemies in the area look up at the sky as Heatblast finally stopped flying...

...and freefalls back into the ground with the speed of a falling nuclear bomb. And, once he crashed back into the ground, Heatblast made an explosion upon impact, with enough force comparable to an actual mini nuke that blows away all their enemies in one fell swoop, melting through their armors and tanks before finally killing them all.

As the smoke cleared, Carolina turns off her domed shield as her brother switches back to his human form. The two watch the charred skeletons of their foes before they fist bump each other to celebrate.

* * *

"Been a while since we fought like that." Carolina says to her brother as the two of them enter the cockpit of their Pelican, with Ben taking the pilot seat as Carolina herself uses the co-pilot seat behind him.

"Yeah, no kidding." Ben responds, flipping some switches before firing up the engines and inserts Mica's AI chip into a drive near the steering gear for the ship.

With that, Carolina also took her turn and plugs Church in too. As the younger sibling finally takes the Pelican up in the air, he fires up light speed and, in an instant, their ship disappears and enters a tunnel of light and space. "Church?" Carolina called for her AI.

Right on cue, both AIs appear alongside a holographic screens for both of them to see. One had a video that's yet to be played, another has photos of people strapped to operation tables while some UNSC scientists seem to be injecting them with some strange, unknown substance, and the last screen has entire documents in it.

Without the need to speak, both Freelancers read the document first quietly.

 _Report #1:_

 _Project Floodgate has began. First test subjects managed to survive the first mutation. Interview with them suggested that they're still as sentient as when they volunteered for this operation. Field tests has shown that their physical prowess has improved, seemingly multiplied by 5. They're our first line of the five phases of Floodgate. We hope that this made you satisfied with phase one, ma'am._

 _— Doctor Greene_

 _Report #2:_

 _Phase two for the next line of subjects, ma'am. Recent studies showed the science team that the phase two volunteers have the same new super strength as the previous phase one soldiers. In addition, as per your request, they now have the ability to form simple close combat weaponry, but the limit they could form seem to be weapons as big as spears._

 _Unfortunately, with the good news came bad news. Among the 10 of the volunteers, only four survived longer. The unfortunate six went mad before turning brain dead. As per your request, again, we threw the failed subjects into the incinerator._

 _With a huge amount of loss, we would understand if you wish for us to stop at phase two and recreate more phase ones, which seem to be the more successful. But we would most definitely appreciate if you allow us to continue to phase three._

 _— Doctor Greene_

 _Report #3:_

 _Doctor Validus... Phase three is a failure and it may be our fault. The rest of science team knows what you'd do if we failed and they've attempted to flee... I did no such thing. I am a man of science and I know when I failed. And I know what you are capable off. Running is delaying the inevitable._

 _While I await what your plan is for me, then this may potentially be my last report for you, in case it may help._

 _Phase three only had one... "volunteer". It was unsuccessful, as I've said... in terms of control and sanity. When trapped then released for proper testing, it tore apart tank armor with it's bare hands, was immune to bullets and low level plasma fire and it's regeneration was fast enough to heal wounds almost immediately. It's only flaw was that it acged like a wild animal rather than a human being._

 _Because of it's healing, the incinerator was proven useless, so we had it contained deep in the lab. I'm hoping you would be strong enough to eliminate yourself, just as you will with me._

 _It was quite an exploration working for you, miss Validus._

 _— Doctor Greene_

After reading all three, the four heroes took a moment of silence to process what they had just read...

"...Well damn. That's depressing." Church pointed out.

"I'm just gonna go trace where the files originally came from so we know where to go..." Mica suggested.

Carolina then walked off her seat as she stretches her arms. "I'm gonna go get coffee. Still glad you installed that coffee maker." She tells her brother, walking to another section of the Pelican.

"So can we name it the 'Tanaka' now?" Ben asks his sister.

"We are not naming the Pelican after a porn star." Carolina yelled across from where she is.

"That's a porn star name?" Ben asks in response.

* * *

 **To be continued...**


End file.
